Thursday, 6 March 2014

Who remembers playing Myst?

Am I showing my age there?

Well I've decided that being a baby is just like playing Myst V: End of Ages, on a pc, in 2005. With my little brother.

When you start out the controls are really difficult, so you spend ages going in circles and stuff. Once you've got movement figured out you wander around in a pleasant, but basically inert background, until one time you accidentally bump into an object and it moves and this is hugely exciting, so you spend ages figuring out how you did it, and then moving it again and again.

Then you walk round the background again searching for more things you can move (I believe the philosophical term for these is 'affordances'. One day you accidentally hit upon a key combination that performs some action on an object, like picking it up and shitbag, that's a good day. So then you go back round and pick everything up.

It basically goes on like this, you discover new actions and try them out on all the things you can see, every now and again accidentally opening a door or finding a hidden portal.

I hope Orson doesn't just get bored and give up on about level three like I did.